Silver halide color photographic materials are imagewise exposed and developed with an aromatic amine series color developing agent, and the resulting oxidation product of the developing agent is reacted with a color image-forming coupler (hereinafter referred to as "coupler") in the material to give color images. In color photographic materials, in general, combinations of a yellow coupler, a cyan coupler and a magenta coupler are used.
In 1912, Fisher, et al. discovered the fundamental of color development, and various improvements of the color development system have heretofore been noticeably effected. In particular, various improvements and studies have been extensively effected including, for example, shortening of development time, simplification of processing steps, re-use of waste solutions in development, reduction of the amount of replenishers, processing without water, removal of benzyl alcohol in consideration of preservation of the environment, etc.
However, there still are many problems with conventional technical means. For instance, in actual development processing, a fresh processing solution is not used for each development procedure but the developer is replenished in accordance with the amount of the materials to be developed, and the replenishment of the developer causes some problems in the development procedure.
In general, a development processing solution comprises a color developer, a stop solution, a bleaching solution, a fixer or a blix, etc., and the processing temperature is high, being about 31.degree. C. to 43.degree. C. Accordingly, the developing agent is decomposed when used for a long period of time or is oxidized by contact with air, or some components in the photographic materials as processed are dissolved out and precipitate in the processing solution during the processing of the materials, or the processing solution sticks to the materials as processed and is carried over into the next bath together with the materials, whereby the composition of the processing solution will often vary. A processing solution thus run for a long period of time becomes a so-called running solution. Under such situations, replenishment of deficient chemical components is effected and removal of undesired components is also effected, but these treatments are not satisfactory. Further, in the rinsing step, the amount of the rinsing water to be used is desired to be reduced or the rinsing step is desired to be effected without water because of a shortage of water resources, rise in city water costs, and other economical and environmental reasons. In such water-free treatment, however, inorganic components such as thiosulfates, sulfites or meta-bisulfites present in the processing solution as well as organic components such as a developing agent present in the developer solution enter into or adhere onto the photographic materials processed.
Further, in view of the deterioration of the composition of the treating solution as it is used, the reduction of the amount of the rinsing water in the rinsing step and the water-free processing step, it is evident that the amount of the components of the processing solution which enter into or adhere onto the photographic materials processed tends to increase remarkably.
On the other hand, regarding couplers to be incorporated into photographic materials, development of couplers capable of forming sharp cyan, magenta or yellow dyes with less side-absorption is being effected so as to attain a good color reproduction, and at the same time, development of highly active couplers capable of being color-developed in a short period of time is also being effected. Further, development of new additives capable of effectively inducing the excellent characteristics of these couplers is also being effected. Unfortunately, however, the newly induced characteristics often cause deterioration of the storability of the color photographs due to the reaction with the components of the processing solution that remain in the photographic materials after being processed.
It is known that the components of the processing solution that remain in the photographic materials after development, especially the developing agent which is an aromatic primary amine compound and compounds derived therefrom, cause the deterioration of the fastness of the image formed, for example, because of the influence of light, heat, moisture, oxygen, etc., during storage for a long period of time, or the compounds themselves self-couple or convert into colored substances by the action of any coexisting materials to form so-called "stains". This ia a fatal defect in color photographs.
On the other hand, various studies have been made relating to the prevention of image deterioration and stain prevention, apart from the above-mentioned technical means. For instance, various technical ideas have been proposed, including the selective use of hardly color-fading couplers, the use of a anti-fading agent for preventing the color images formed from fading under light, and the use of an ultraviolet absorbent for preventing the color images formed from being deteriorated by ultraviolet rays.
In particular, the effect of preventing image deterioration by the use of an anti-fading agent is remarkable, and for example, hydroquinones, hindered phenols, tocopherols, chromans, coumarans and compounds derived from these compounds by etherifying the phenolic hydroxyl group therein (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,935,016, 3,930,866, 3,700,455, 3,764,337, 3,432,300, 3,573,050 and 4,254,216, British Patents 2,066,975 and 1,326,889, Japanese Patent Publication No. 30462/76, etc.), etc. are known as anti-fading agents.
However, these compounds are still insufficient to provide images of high quality, although the compounds are accepted as having the effect of anti-fading agents for preventing the fading or discoloration of image dyes formed. In addition, these compounds often cause variation in the hue of color images, generation of fog, occurrence of dispersion insufficiency or even formation of fine crystals in coated emulsions, and therefore, these compounds cannot be said to be able to display all-around effect for photographic use.
Recently, certain kinds of amine series compounds have been proposed to be effective for the prevention of stains, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,463,085 and 4,483,918, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 218445/84 and 229557/84, etc. (the term "OPI" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application"). However, none of these conventional compounds has been sufficient for attaining the object.
On the other hand, it is known to add a 1-aryl-3-pyrazolidone derivative, especially a precursor thereof, to layers of photographic materials, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,358,525, 4,465,762 and 4,522,917, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 52055/80, 5330/80, 40245/82, 104641/84 and 121328/84, etc. However, these compounds have, when added, the defect of deteriorating the light-fastness of the photographic materials, and especially, the color-faded degree of remarkable for 3-alkoxycarbonyloxy-2-pyrazolidone derivatives.